As my sister plows through the massive amount of objects my mother left behind, she has been gracious enough to ask if there were any I wanted. At first I said there was nothing, but I wanted my children to be able to choose an item or two. Then I remembered a Finnish wooden carving that had hung on the hallway wall of my grandmother and great-grandmother’s home, and described it the best I could. Not only did it turn up in today’s excavations, it had a mate, and they both are in my home now, for which I am grateful.

Here’s the back. This must have been acquired on a trip “home,” as Granny came to New York from Jyväskylä, Finland, when she was 16, around 1909.